Updated at 3:25 p.m. on Thursday, Sept. 11, 2025.
As the Evergreen community continues to recover following the shooting on Wednesday at the high school, authorities are sharing more information.
On Thursday, they said they now believe many more people could have been hurt if not for some of the safety measures the school had in place, such as locked doors and the quick actions of staff and students.
Here’s what we know so far:
What happened:
The shooter, a 16-year-old student at the high school, took a revolver and lots of ammunition to school.
The student waited until around lunchtime to start shooting. He reloaded his handgun multiple times as he made his way throughout the school looking for “targets,” said Jacki Kelley, a spokeswoman for the Jefferson County Sheriff's Office.
“He would fire and reload, fire and reload, fire and reload,” Kelley said. “This went on and on, and as he did that, he tried to find new targets, and he came up against a roadblock on many of those doors. He couldn't get to those kids.”
Two students were shot, one outside the school and one inside the school. One of the outside crime scenes is on Olive Street, just behind the school, which was still closed Thursday as the investigation continued.
The sheriff’s office said calls of an active shooter were received around 12:30 p.m. Wednesday. Officers were at the school in two minutes, Kelly said, and encountered the shooter within five minutes. Kelley said officers did not discharge their guns during the encounter.
Kelley said she estimates officers encountered the suspect in five minutes or less after receiving the first 911 calls, but could not speak yet to the interaction that law enforcement had with the student before he shot himself.
She said there is body camera footage of the incident, as well as security footage from inside the school that captures the suspect’s movements throughout the incident. None of that has been released at this time.
The suspect later died from his self-inflicted injury. The two other students remain in the hospital.
The victims:
We know that the two shooting victims are both also students at the high school, but only one has been identified.
One of them was shot inside, and another was shot outside of the school building.
One student remains in critical condition at CommonSpirit St. Anthony's Hospital in Lakewood, and the second student was in stable condition Wednesday night and was transferred to another hospital.
The Jeffco Sheriff’s Office identified one of the students who was shot as 18-year-old Matthew Silverstone. His family released a statement through the sheriff’s office.
“The family appreciates the community’s concern and support, but as we remain focused on our loved one’s recovery, we respectfully request privacy as we continue to heal and navigate this road ahead.”
The suspect:
On Thursday, the suspect was identified as 16-year-old Desmond Holly.
Kelley said that investigators have been in contact with Holly’s parents, who are being cooperative.
Investigators searched the home, and while Kelley couldn’t speak to exactly what was found, she said that they have learned that Holly appears to have been radicalized by some kind of extremist group. She did not elaborate and said that a motive is still unclear.
Kelley also said that while they aren’t completely sure, they believe that Holly was shooting indiscriminately, rather than targeting certain people.
“I have to believe when you bring a gun to school and you continue to fire and reload and fire and reload that you are on a mission and we are grateful that he was less successful but we're devastated that he was successful at all,” she said.
The motive
Kelley said during a news conference that Holly had been “radicalized by some extremist network," and suggested authorities came to that conclusion after examining the suspect's home and phone.
But details on how he allegedly had been radicalized and by what group were not immediately released. Kelley said more information would be disclosed at a later date.
The gun:
Kelley said that Holly had a revolver of unknown caliber and “quite a bit” of ammunition.
It’s still unclear how many times Holly fired his weapon, but Kelley said that he reloaded many times.
In addition to shooting at two fellow students who were hospitalized, Kelley also described the scene inside the school with lockers and windows shot out.
Investigators are still working to figure out how Holly got access to the weapon, Kelley said, or how he concealed it on his bus ride to school and for that morning before he began the shooting.
The investigation
Investigators still have a lot to look into today and in the following days, including multiple crime scenes.
“The reason we have so many crime scene areas inside is because we have windows shot out. We have lockers that were shot up, we're finding spent rounds, unspent rounds, so it's a huge area and the school, I was told, is three levels, so lots of work to be done,” Kelley said.
With assistance from the FBI and multiple local law enforcement agencies, Kelley said they are working to continue to process multiple crime scenes within and outside of the school.
They are looking to answer the questions about:
- How did the suspect get the gun?
- Can they identify a motive?
“There's obviously a lot of work that has to go into looking at his phone, looking at his social media pages, searching his room, searching his backpack,” Kelley said. “...searching his locker. There's a lot of places to look that we hope will just give us better information as to what he was attempting to do and maybe the why. Sometimes we never find out why.”
What's going on in Evergreen today
In addition to the investigation, the Sheriff’s office is working to release vehicles from at least one of the school parking lots.
For students or staff who have their keys for their vehicle, they can go to the Bergen Meadows Elementary building, 1928 S. Hiwan Dr., Evergreen, before 4:45 p.m. today and one person will be transported to the school to retrieve the vehicle.
For those who need to access the school to get their keys, that will not be allowed today, yet.
It’s still unclear when classes might be able to resume.
About the school
Evergreen High School, like other Jeffco schools, has experienced some declining enrollment, but most recently enrolled about 900 students, according to the Colorado Department of Education.
The school sits in the foothills among pine trees.
The school currently does not have a full-time School Resource Officer because the assigned officer was on “medical leave,” Kelley said, so there was a school resource officer that was assigned to multiple schools, including Evergreen High. He had been at the school Wednesday morning, but at the time of the shooting had left campus to help with an unrelated call nearby at the time of the shooting.
Because it was lunch time, some students ran away from the school seeking shelter in nearby homes or the library.
“That to me sounds like Evergreen," Kelley said. “Evergreen is still a smaller community. They're a tight community, man. They're going to take care of their kids; if they're home, they're taking them in.”
Rumors
Some students on social media have shared that they believe they saw more than one shooter.
Kelley said that investigators can say “with 100 percent confidence” that there was no second shooter. She said there were cameras inside the school, “which is very powerful and important for us in our investigations. We're able to track his movement throughout the school.”
This is a developing story.
